10.17.2007

SouPS oN :o)

I received an invitation a couple of weeks ago from a sweet lady whom I have had the great pleasure of meeting since coming to Virginia. She wanted to host a dinner at her home featuring soups to help raise money for a charity of her choosing. She invited some 'foodie' friends and I was so excited to be included!

There were two fantastic soups on the menu but what most inspired me was her kindness and generosity. There I was sitting in her kitchen, surrounded by some amazing women, and feeling truly blessed. This just proves that food can really bring people together.

She made Mexican Tortilla Soup, recipe compliments of Tyler Florence and it was delicious! Here are a couple of photos to share of some of the ingredients as well as the finished product.






She also made a Plantain Soup from Ingrid Hoffmann's Simply Delicioso. This soup was equally delicious. I honestly would not want to have to choose one over the other :o) Both were excellent choices!



Tonight was also my first time trying Passion Tea. It was absolutely thirst quenching :o) Look at these beautiful glasses! Who wouldn't feel at home having this glass of tea?



Both of these soup recipes can be found online so I won't post them here. If you have difficult locating them, drop me a line here and I'll be glad to send a link.

I want to thank my dinner ladies from the bottom of my heart for such a terrific night! Thank you also to my wonderful hostess for the fantastic inspirational tour.

I look forward to many more charity dinners with them :o) This truly was soup for the soul.

10.16.2007

MY NeWeST STReSS THeRaPY: PLaYiNG WiTH PaPeR

Most of you know I am *considering* scrapbooking as a hobby...

It all started with one book and has turned into one big technicolor dream! I just recently carved a little niche for me to work. I am no way near organized but it's a start. You can see... I'm definitely in the 'considering' category, right? I'm working on a little more space to get those remaining thousand 'must haves' up and off the carpet :o( unfortunately space is a premium so I'm going to have to be creative :o) I took this photo while working on 'SWeeT'. Pardon my mess ;o)


I was up later last night playing with paper, stickers and other embellishments. I'm toying with some ideas I've seen and this is the culmination of some of those inspirations (THaNK Ye SCRaP MiSeR!). It's not 'PeRFeCT' but it is 'SWeeT' :o) (Hint: You can click on any image on my blog to enlarge it.)
Here are my newest pages.

*note the frog feet*




They are not totally complete but a good start has been made, that's for sure :o) I tried a couple of new things like rub-ons (all girl), 3d acrylic glaze on the fingers of the frogs (frog prince) and primary colors scrapbook paint on chip letters (sweet). My *SS* recommended that I add a rusty orange to 'sweet' page to lighten it up. What do you think?

I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed working on them :o)